tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36700615379475850502017-11-18T14:12:12.384-07:00InsideOut"The Lord works from the inside out. The world works from the outside in. The world would take people out of the slums. Christ would take the slums out of people, and then they would take themselves out of the slums. The world would mold men by changing their environment. Christ changes men, who then change their environment. The world would shape human behavior, but Christ can change human nature...Yes, Christ changes men, and changed men can change the world."
Ezra Taft BensonHaleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10050881087895378237noreply@blogger.comBlogger142125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3670061537947585050.post-61977764974731783422016-02-21T21:36:00.002-07:002016-02-21T21:41:21.900-07:00Spot of Sunshine<div class="MsoNormal">The past few days, the sun has been out especially bright for this time in the winter and it makes me happy, happy, happy! I always forget how rejuvenating sunshine is until I get big ol' dose of it and realize what I've been missing :)&nbsp;</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-HhfJB-nPpqs/VsqPfWl6AYI/AAAAAAAAF0E/_Ts6ekumU_Q/s1600/IMG_20160208_181219735.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-HhfJB-nPpqs/VsqPfWl6AYI/AAAAAAAAF0E/_Ts6ekumU_Q/s400/IMG_20160208_181219735.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">(On this sunny day, this view in real life was breathtaking. This picture...not so much. But I included it as a reminder of how refreshing this beautiful earth is!)</td></tr></tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">The sunshine got me in the mood to write some of the thoughts I've had lately. I have two main thoughts.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">~</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;">First:</span> I have been thinking a lot about hard things people go through. Specifically, disabilities/health conditions that severely incapacitate individuals. Why do such enormously hard circumstances exist?&nbsp;</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">This isn't a new question and I generally feel fairly satisfied about the answers I have for this question, such as a chance to learn/prove/develop what you're made of so you can be a better person.) But. Some of the conditions I am thinking about seem so very limiting that it hardly seems the person is able to personally develop from the circumstance (for example, someone with severe cognitive disabilities).&nbsp;</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">My question was satisfied in a simple, touching way.&nbsp;</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">I work with 6th and 7th grade students (and LOVE them!). One student approached me wondering if I could help her come up with a way she could do something kind for a classmate with severe disabilities. This student had already been spending time with her classmate but wanted a way to do something more. Through the collaboration of a plethora of individuals (a teacher, the vice principal, the women who run the Boys &amp; Girls program, a friend of one of these women, and 6th/7th graders in a Random Acts of Kindness after-school club), the idea was formed and the plan was executed to make a blanket for this girl. The blanket was<b> beautiful.</b> As was the experience.&nbsp;</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">So many individuals reached out to make this blanket-endeavor a success. There was my answer. Yes, one of the reasons life is hard is so that we can grow and learn and become something stronger and better. But a parallel reason life is hard is so that we can love each other. So we can look beyond our own interests and growth to care about someone else and their world. (Which, in turn, helps us learn and grow.) There are some tough, tough things in life. &nbsp;So we learn. And we love.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">~</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;">Second</span>--and related--I have the lines of &nbsp;a Sam Foss poem frequetly circling back to me lately: "Let me live in a house by the side of the road and be a friend to man." (There is actually a super awesome house in Brigham City themed around this poem, maybe I'll take a couple pictures of it and add it to this post, I love it!)</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Here is the poem :)</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;">The House by the Side of the Road</span>--Sam Walter Foss</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">There are hermit souls that live withdrawn<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal">In the peace of their self-content;<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal">There are souls, like stars, that dwell apart,<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal">In a fellowless firmament;<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal">There are pioneer souls that blaze their paths<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal">Where highways never ran;-<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal">But let me live by the side of the road<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal">And be a friend to man.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Let me live in a house by the side of the road,<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal">Where the race of men go by-<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>The men who are good and the men who are bad,<o:p></o:p></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>As good and as bad as I.</b><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal">I would not sit in the scorner’s seat,<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal">Or hurl the cynic’s ban;-<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal">Let me live in a house by the side of the road<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal">And be a friend to man.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">I see from my house by the side of the road,<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal">By the side of the highway of life,<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal">The men who press with the ardor of hope,<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal">The men who are faint with the strife.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>But I turn not away from their smiles nor their tears-<o:p></o:p></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>Both parts of an infinite plan-</b><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal">Let me live in my house by the side of the road<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal">And be a friend to man.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">I know there are brook-gladdened meadows ahead<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal">And mountains of wearisome height;<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal">That the road passes on through the long afternoon<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal">And stretches away to the night.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal">But still I rejoice when the travelers rejoice,<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal">And weep with the strangers that moan,<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal">Nor live in my house by the side of the road<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal">Like a man who dwells alone.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Let me live in my house by the side of the road<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>Where the race of men go by-<o:p></o:p></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>They are good, they are bad, they are weak, they are strong,<o:p></o:p></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>Wise, foolish- so am I.</b><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal">Then why should I sit in the scorner’s seat<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal">Or hurl the cynic’s ban?-<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;">Let me live in my house by the side of the road<o:p></o:p></span></div><br /><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;">And be a friend to man.</span><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal">:)</div>Haleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10050881087895378237noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3670061537947585050.post-23781174928800196952016-02-20T21:56:00.000-07:002016-02-22T06:07:27.339-07:00"Authentic" Musings<div>(This is not necessarily a post about something that inspires me. This is just a post about my 2 cents on the subject of posing/authenticity in social media ;))</div><div><br /></div>Awhile ago, I came across a buzzfeed article that I found <u>hilarious</u>:&nbsp;http://www.buzzfeed.com/stephaniemcneal/hipster-barbie#.mmANQAnRE<br /><div><br /></div><div>Basically, it pokes fun of how overly-staged people's lives can seem through the lens of social media. (Hash-tagging "live authentic" or other such sayings despite the misrepresenting their lives in accompanying pictures.)<br /><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-CWXZ0yP2u88/VsqbWwjQCJI/AAAAAAAAF0U/-vuA-cp_JcY/s1600/FB_IMG_1455920204838.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-CWXZ0yP2u88/VsqbWwjQCJI/AAAAAAAAF0U/-vuA-cp_JcY/s320/FB_IMG_1455920204838.jpg" width="317" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">(I found this humorous and it seemed fitting for the post ;))</td></tr></tbody></table><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>My thoughts....</div><div><br /></div><div><span style="font-size: large;">Number 1: Holy smokes, agreed!!!!! </span>On several occasions, I have seen people post very pinteresty pictures about feeling inspired or about how rosy their day/life is, only to find out they were actually having a super crappy day or that their lives are in complete shambles.&nbsp;</div><div><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;">Number 2: Ummm....I love cool pictures!</span> </span><span style="font-size: medium;">So...I actually enjoy the breathtaking nature shots, cleverly setup pictures of family/friends/things, and tributes to events that people got to experience. People are so creative, and it astounds me and inspires me.&nbsp;</span></div><div><br /></div><div><span style="font-size: large;">Number 3: I'm split!</span> I <i>am</i> bugged that people so often present themselves falsely. But...would I like it any better if people were using social media to keep us updated about the mundane or unpleasant aspects of their lives? (#toasterbrokeagain) We like to share the positives! The cool trips we go on, the cool sights we see, the experiences (everyday or unusual) that we enjoy, and the people we love. (Even on crappy days or when much of our lives are in shambles, there are good things that happen, and it is great when people can acknowledge that.)</div><div><br /></div><div>I have no real conclusion to this rant. The posing bugs me. The sharing of awesomeness inspires me.&nbsp;</div><div><br /></div><div>I think we are all trying to discover who our "authentic" self really is, probably because we develop that self in the process of trying to find it.&nbsp;</div><div><br /></div><div>Maybe the only real problems come if we let ourselves think (1) every second of our life must be snapchat/instagram/facebook/twitter-worthy or (2) only the post-worthy moments in life are valuable, or (3) when we allow ourselves to feel jealous or inferior when we see what everybody else is posting.&nbsp;</div><div><br /></div><div>Maybe the good comes when (1) we think how great it is that someone found enough joy in what they were experiencing to share it, (2) we feel inspired to do something or change something positive, or (3) we get to keep in touch with someone we don't see regularly, or (4) whatever other good you can think to get out of what people post.&nbsp;</div><div><br /></div><div>I guess this is the conclusion of my rant: enjoy the good that you encounter and let the rest fly by.</div><div><br /></div><div>:)</div>Haleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10050881087895378237noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3670061537947585050.post-18960936036967195912014-10-27T19:57:00.001-06:002014-10-27T20:01:49.471-06:00Something That Matters<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowFullScreen='true' webkitallowfullscreen='true' mozallowfullscreen='true' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/4XZ12nrz47U?feature=player_embedded' FRAMEBORDER='0' /></div><br /><br />I can officially say it has been forever since I have blogged. Listening to good ol' Lady A today provided the spark to get me writing again!<br /><br />I love this song, "I Was Here." (I love a lot of Lady Antebellum's music :)) Especially because I have been thinking a lot lately about <b>what matters.</b><br /><br />My life has become so busy...even busier than I have ever been before...which causes good time for reflection: if how we spend our time reflects our priorities, are my priorities what I want them to be?<br /><br />One thought that comes to mind is this quote:<br /><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">"How we respond in any situation has to make things better,&nbsp;</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">not worse....</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">What ultimately will make this situation and [others] better?"</span><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.00784314); font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">&nbsp;</span></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.00784314); font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Jeffrey R. Holland</span></span></div><br />Back to the song, one reason I like it so much is that I don't get the vibe of "this is all about me and how <b>I</b> can change the world"...even though it talks about that. I get the vibe of getting pumped up to make sure I am being me, and being the best me every day so I can do something that matters.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;">What matters?&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: center;">When you know that, you find your path.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b style="border: 0px none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">"I Was Here"</span></b><br /><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Lady Antebellum</span><br /><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="border: 0px none; margin: 0px 10px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">You will notice me<br style="border: 0px none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />I'll be leaving my mark like initials carved in an old oak tree<br style="border: 0px none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />You wait and see<br style="border: 0px none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />Maybe I'll write like Twain wrote<br style="border: 0px none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />Maybe I'll paint like Van Gogh<br style="border: 0px none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />Cure the common cold<br style="border: 0px none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />I don't know but I'm ready start cause I know in my heart<br style="border: 0px none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="border: 0px none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />I wanna do something that matters<br style="border: 0px none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />Say something different<br style="border: 0px none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />Something that sets the whole world on its ear<br style="border: 0px none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />I wanna do something better<br style="border: 0px none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />With the time I've been given<br style="border: 0px none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />And I wanna try<br style="border: 0px none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />To touch a few hearts in this life<br style="border: 0px none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />Leave nothing less<br style="border: 0px none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />Than something that says "I was here"<br style="border: 0px none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="border: 0px none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />I will prove you wrong<br style="border: 0px none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />If you think I'm all talk, you're in for a shock<br style="border: 0px none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />Cause this dream's too strong<br style="border: 0px none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />And before too long<br style="border: 0px none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="border: 0px none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />Maybe I'll compose symphonies,<br style="border: 0px none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />Maybe I'll fight for world peace<br style="border: 0px none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />Cause I know it's my destiny<br style="border: 0px none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />To leave more than a trace of myself in this place<br style="border: 0px none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="border: 0px none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />I wanna do something that matters<br style="border: 0px none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />Say something different<br style="border: 0px none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />Something that sets the whole world on its ear<br style="border: 0px none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />I wanna do something better<br style="border: 0px none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />With the time I've been given<br style="border: 0px none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />And I wanna try<br style="border: 0px none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />To touch a few hearts in this life<br style="border: 0px none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />Leave nothing less<br style="border: 0px none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />Than something that says "I was here"<br style="border: 0px none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="border: 0px none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />And I know that I will do more than just pass through this life<br style="border: 0px none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />I'll leave nothing less than something that says "I was here"<br style="border: 0px none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="border: 0px none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />"I was here"<br style="border: 0px none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />(I was here)<br style="border: 0px none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />"I was here"<br style="border: 0px none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />(wanna do something that matters)<br style="border: 0px none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />(Something that says I was here)<br style="border: 0px none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />"wanna do something that matters"<br style="border: 0px none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />(Something that says I was here)<br style="border: 0px none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />"I was here"</span></div>Haleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10050881087895378237noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3670061537947585050.post-79249730630962429002013-07-02T05:45:00.001-06:002013-07-02T05:45:26.404-06:00Disney!Haven't posted in way too long, but this was too good to pass up :)<br /><br />What if the Disney Princes were a boy band?<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowFullScreen='true' webkitallowfullscreen='true' mozallowfullscreen='true' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/MWdFrw5DoJU?feature=player_embedded' FRAMEBORDER='0' /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Hope you were also inspired to watch a Disney movie ;)</div>Haleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10050881087895378237noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3670061537947585050.post-38575899011294921362013-06-05T09:22:00.000-06:002013-06-05T09:22:36.941-06:00Let the Words Fall Out<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowFullScreen='true' webkitallowfullscreen='true' mozallowfullscreen='true' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/QUQsqBqxoR4?feature=player_embedded' FRAMEBORDER='0' /></div>This is a song we have been loving at work :) (Slash hating when it is stuck in our heads)<br /><br />Good stuff :)<br /><br />Brave by Sara Bareilles<br />"<span style="font-size: large;">You can be amazing</span><br /><span style="font-size: large;">You can turn a phrase into a weapon or a drug</span><br />You can be the outcast<br />Or be the backlash of somebody's lack of love<br /><span style="font-size: large;">Or you can start speaking up</span><br />Nothing's gonna hurt you the way that words do<br />And they settle 'neath your skin<br />Kept on the inside and no sunlight<br />Sometimes a shadow wins<br /><span style="font-size: large;">But I wonder what would happen if you</span><br /><br />Say what you wanna say<br />And let the words fall out<br />Honestly I wanna see you be brave<br /><br />With what you want to say<br />And let the words fall out<br />Honestly I wanna see you be brave<br /><br />I just wanna see you<br />I wanna see you be brave<br /><br />Everybody's been there, everybody's been stared down<br />By the enemy<br /><span style="font-size: large;">Fallen for the fear and done some disappearing</span><br /><span style="font-size: large;">Bow down to the mighty</span><br /><span style="font-size: large;">Don't run, stop holding your tongue</span><br />Maybe there's a way out of the cage where you live<br />Maybe one of these days you can let the light in<br />Show me how big your brave is<br /><br />Say what you wanna say<br />And let the words fall out<br />Honestly I wanna see you be brave<br /><br /><span style="font-size: large;">Innocence, your history of silence</span><br /><span style="font-size: large;">Won't do you any good</span><br /><span style="font-size: large;">Did you think it would?<br />Let your words be anything but empty</span><br /><span style="font-size: large;">Why don't you tell them the truth?</span><br /><br />Say what you wanna say<br />And let the words fall out<br />Honestly I wanna see you be brave<br /><br />With what you want to say<br />And let the words fall out<br />Honestly I wanna see you be brave...<br /><br />I just wanna see you<br />I wanna see you be brave."<br /><br />:)Haleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10050881087895378237noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3670061537947585050.post-69685034904210884142013-05-20T06:07:00.000-06:002013-05-20T06:07:24.514-06:00Rapidly, merrilyCharlotte Bronte wrote an encouraging poem I quite liked!<br />What I like most about it is that I strongly believe the message I got:<br />Hope is powerful.<br /><br />Really we're all gonna have uncomfortable or rough or personally stretching times.<span style="font-size: large;"> If you believe things can get better, you work to create that reality</span>. What a simple but profound truth!<br /><br />My boss has a license plate cover that says, "There are no accidents." Besides tempting the car wreck gods, this saying basically means that you create yourself and what happens to you by what you think and do. (Things happen to us. But if we do something with them (or not), then we are still involved in that creation.)<br /><br />Which reminds me of this:<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-TNpstJWlQHU/UZoRF_WuFQI/AAAAAAAAAmM/VuUilbFWHxg/s1600/bethegood.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-TNpstJWlQHU/UZoRF_WuFQI/AAAAAAAAAmM/VuUilbFWHxg/s320/bethegood.jpg" width="183" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">(Yep. Totally found this on Pinterest)</span></div><br />Life teaches you that you need to have hope when hope is the silliest option.<br /><br />Which reminds me of <a href="http://www.ajourneytostars.blogspot.com/2011/08/something-more.html">this video</a>. Holy heck, that was one of my first posts. "If you don't get a miracle...become one."<br /><br />A line in this poem says,<br />"Yet hope again, elastic springs, <b>Unconquered, though she fell</b>." Awesome<br /><br /><span style="font-size: large;">Life</span>--Charlotte Bronte<br />"Life, believe, is not a dream<br />So dark as sages say;<br />Oft a little morning rain<br />Foretells a pleasant day.<br />Sometimes there are clouds of gloom,<br />But these are transient all;<br />If the shower will make the roses bloom,<br />O why lament its fall?<br /><br />Rapidly, merrily,<br />Life's sunny hours flit by,<br />Gratefully, cheerily,<br />Enjoy them as they fly!<br /><br />What though Death at times steps in<br />And calls our Best away?<br />What though sorry seems to win,<br />O'er hope, a heavy sway?<br />Yet hope again elastic springs,<br />Unconquered, though she fell;<br />Still buoyant are her golden wings,<br />Still strong to bear us well.<br />Manfully, fearlessly,<br />The day of trial bear,<br />For gloriously, victoriously,<br />Can courage quell despair!"<br /><br />:)Haleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10050881087895378237noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3670061537947585050.post-29805946050515753762013-05-13T08:25:00.001-06:002013-05-13T08:26:01.663-06:00Future is Present<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Time</b> </span>by Edie Moy<br /><br />Forever it seems<br />Seasons fly by and by, now<br />Future is present.<br /><br />:)Haleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10050881087895378237noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3670061537947585050.post-3438812698299866772013-05-08T11:28:00.002-06:002013-05-08T11:28:51.775-06:00Summertime! Woo! Life sure moves along :) It's exhausting and wonderful :)<br /><br />I have a new job! (Internship.)<br /><br />I'm interning at a residential treatment center and I'm amazed.<br /><br />The students here have been through hard things, and they are working on making hard changes.<br /><br />They are in an environment specifically designed to help them understand themselves better and recognize changes they need to make. WOW!<br /><br />Really, we are all in such an environment. It is just usually more subtle. Feedback and consequences in the "real world" aren't always consistent or obvious.<br /><br />Watching the students look at their issues makes me really think about how I react...to everything. To other people, to myself, to everyday situations.<br />When something isn't going how I would like it to (whether because I'm not acting correctly or because the details around me aren't ideal), what do I think/feel/do?<br /><br />Withdraw? Shut down and think it isn't worth it to work through the situation? Smile and nod but seethe inside? Feel frustrated but decide to make that hard, good choices? Take my feelings out on others? Choose to look at what I can change about what is going on? Hmm!<br /><br />I am so impressed by people. People go through rough stuff! But we can do it! That is why we are here--refine ourselves and love others. Awesome :)<br /><br />:)Haleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10050881087895378237noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3670061537947585050.post-15151924787694632552013-05-07T11:39:00.000-06:002013-05-08T11:40:04.335-06:00If You Can't Say Something Nice..I love this! Got chills at one point.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowFullScreen='true' webkitallowfullscreen='true' mozallowfullscreen='true' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/rUOpqd0rQSo?feature=player_embedded' FRAMEBORDER='0' /></div><br />Little bit reminds me of this:<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-TuTHvZnEuMg/UYqNV8qn-QI/AAAAAAAAAlg/FWarLrCg8uY/s1600/doghouse.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="216" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-TuTHvZnEuMg/UYqNV8qn-QI/AAAAAAAAAlg/FWarLrCg8uY/s640/doghouse.png" width="640" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;">http://thedoghousediaries.com/4503</div><br />This happens all the time with singers, actors, politicians, etc.<br />Crazy how sometimes we rationalize why we can be rude!<br />Of course we can have opinions and preferences. But remember we are all people :)<br /><br /><br /><br />:)Haleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10050881087895378237noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3670061537947585050.post-82317461884637563142013-04-12T09:11:00.001-06:002013-04-12T09:11:23.518-06:00Lotsa Pretty :)The other night I watched the Life of Pi with my roommates :)<br />I'll admit I was skeptical before the movie began ha. After seeing the trailer, I wondered how the movie could last more than ten minutes. He gets shipwrecked and he is in a boat with a tiger. How do you stretch that out??<br /><br />Well, I must say I was thoroughly impressed!!! My roommates and I got really into it haha--yelling and oohing and aahing.<br /><br />The scenery was gorgeous, astounding. Breathtaking, even! Seriously incredible nature shots.<br /><br />With this on my mind, and another bike ride up to Deer Creek Reservoir, I couldn't help but think how great this earth is. I feel God through his beautiful world!<br /><br />I love the sky, I love the mountains, I love trees. Tis all great :)<br />Pretty nature makes me happy happy happy :)<br /><br />(Wanna hear another pretty thing I will see today?? The Oquirrh Mountain Temple :) I am going through, and I am not sure I could be more excited than I am at this moment :) :))<br /><br />Eek! :)<br /><br />:) :) :)Haleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10050881087895378237noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3670061537947585050.post-72589009444057218162013-04-07T12:08:00.001-06:002013-04-07T12:08:17.100-06:00MotivesI don't think we realize everything that has been done for us.<div><br /></div><div>Sacrifices made, times people held their tongues when we were being dumb, efforts they made to make themselves better.</div><div><br /></div><div>Makes me want to give everybody the benefit of the doubt, think kindly about everyone. Who knows why they are doing what they are doing.&nbsp;</div><div><br /></div><div>It reminds me of a Christmas story! A family was really struggling for money--they literally could not buy any Christmas presents for their young children. To their joy and surprise, someone dropped off a generous supply of gifts on their porch Christmas Eve.&nbsp;</div><div>They went about their days, finding themselves acting kinder to everyone! They had no idea who gave them the presents--what if they were sour or judgmental towards someone who had presented them with an unspeakably wonderful gift??&nbsp;</div><div><br /></div><div>I love that! We really don't know everyone's full story. I have found that the more you know (about circumstances or people!), the easier it is to understand and love people.&nbsp;</div><div><br /></div><div>So until you know more...love anyway :) Think the best of people!</div><div><br /></div><div>Pretty much...I'm feeling really humble today. We all fall short, yet there is so much good going on. Life rocks.</div><div><br /></div><div>:)</div>Haleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10050881087895378237noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3670061537947585050.post-28501128073374986862013-04-03T07:47:00.000-06:002013-04-03T07:47:35.725-06:00Super!Hello world!<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;">Can I show you something super pretty?? :) :) :)</div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-8p_ApFrNkRM/UVwr7J7o6SI/AAAAAAAAAkk/cxairmSxzpk/s1600/IMAG0768.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="225" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-8p_ApFrNkRM/UVwr7J7o6SI/AAAAAAAAAkk/cxairmSxzpk/s400/IMAG0768.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">This is where I did my homework yesterday :)&nbsp;</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">I am in a mountain biking class and for homework we go on an individual ride once a week. --This is the Deer Creek Trail. Lotsa ups and downs but a wide trail so I never feared falling off a cliff :)</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Mountain biking is super fun! I'd never done more than road biking before this semester, but I like it a lot :)</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Ready for some more super happenings in my life?</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">General Conference this weekend! (Plus going to Colton's mission reunion--woot!)</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Next week I am going to the temple!!!!!!!!!!!! (insert a million happy exclamation marks)</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Three weeks from today I will take my last final, which means....</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Three weeks and one day from today I will marry Colton in the Salt Lake Temple!</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">:) :) :) :) :) :) :) :)</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">I feel really great this week. (Which is nice because last week was insanely stressful. I can't remember ever feeling as stressed as I was! Three cheers for school ha)</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Luckily I had an awesome weekend to help me recover :) I joined the Kilmer clan in Mesquite for Easter weekend.&nbsp;</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-T6Fq6jQdRrw/UVwxEqxej-I/AAAAAAAAAk8/aM7h4pDgOpU/s1600/12-495F28A8-1178812-960.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-T6Fq6jQdRrw/UVwxEqxej-I/AAAAAAAAAk8/aM7h4pDgOpU/s320/12-495F28A8-1178812-960.jpg" width="248" /></a>The whole trip was a blast!<br />-A sweet hike, <br />-Easter egg hunts,<br />-pool time,<br />-and even a stop at a Cove Fort--a pioneer site where our missionary guide instructed Colton's uncle to marry us (complete with a prairie diamond--a bent horseshoe nail ha!)<br /><br />Who needs Vegas? ;)<br /><br />Twas great. Super great! :)</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">This guy may have been my favorite part of the whole adventure ;)</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-b0y4KChNalQ/UVwxB54EJAI/AAAAAAAAAk0/wowEwTvnijs/s1600/IMAG0703.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-b0y4KChNalQ/UVwxB54EJAI/AAAAAAAAAk0/wowEwTvnijs/s320/IMAG0703.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;">&nbsp;(I do realize I look slightly stoned in this picture. Sh sh sh. I'm just happy :))</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Anyhoo, life is super busy. And super awesome :)</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">:)</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><br />Haleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10050881087895378237noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3670061537947585050.post-52182937627472959792013-03-26T02:17:00.000-06:002013-03-26T02:17:20.170-06:00Jojoba"On bleak days, with leaden skies,<br />when you don't know where to begin.<br />Your head hurts and your heart cries,<br />look for the sunshine within.<br /><br />After dark dreams of panic and fear,<br />when you almost break, almost give in.<br />All hope smashed, dreams far from here,<br />look for the sunshine within.<br /><br />On foul days, with no rest in sight,<br />and you cannot force a grin.<br />Remember be calm, it will be alright,<br />you have the sunshine within."<br /><br />(What is it with poets having the coolest names ever? The author of this poem, The Sunshine Within, is Jojoba Mansell! Sweet!)<br /><br />:)Haleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10050881087895378237noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3670061537947585050.post-24436603848478126472013-03-21T22:54:00.002-06:002013-03-21T22:57:49.692-06:00RocksGuess what! I'm taking a mountain biking class now! (I ride with the slow--ahem, I mean <i>fun</i>--group.)<br />It is a blast! In a challenging sorta way ha.<br /><br />Wanna hear one of those life lessons random activities can throw atcha? :)<br />I thought you might ;)<br /><br />When we were approaching a part with a lot of twisty downhills, our teacher told us,<br /><div style="text-align: center;">"<span style="font-size: large;">Now don't look where you don't want to go.</span></div><div style="text-align: right;">If there is a rock you want to miss, don't stare at it.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: right;">Look ahead, where you want to be."<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><img height="266" src="http://www.paraglidingholidays.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/mountain-biking-holidays-11.jpg" width="400" /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">(I admit, I really didn't think it was impossible to conquer some of the up-hills we went on ha.&nbsp;</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">But we did!</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">No, this isn't a pic from the class. Tis a random one, courtesy of google) :)</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div></div><div style="text-align: left;">Ya catching my drift? If there is something you are working on in life, don't concentrate on the ways you can fail. Don't stare at habits you want to stop.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Like they say in rehab for people with addictions--you can't just stop your habit, you have to replace it with something good.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Such is life, eh? :) Focus on the good. Look ahead, where you want to be.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">You might just hit less rocks :)</div><br /><br />P.S. Today is a country music night for me :)<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowFullScreen='true' webkitallowfullscreen='true' mozallowfullscreen='true' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/Pjr0cyhOucs?feature=player_embedded' FRAMEBORDER='0' /></div><br />Haleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10050881087895378237noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3670061537947585050.post-86609419011477683432013-03-07T07:26:00.002-07:002013-03-07T07:30:22.491-07:00RamblingGuess what it's March! I can officially say I get married next month :)<br />Whaaaaa? :)<br /><br />I'm tired. I know there are people who work harder and sleep less than me<br />--but I'm still tired ha!<br />My roommate says I was talking all last night...I wonder if sleep talking makes sleep less effective?<br /><br />That being said, I'm happy as a slinky on an escalator :)<br />(Anyone else love those commercials?)<br /><br />On my mind today is getting things done. Specifically, how you can do things you couldn't do before with a bit of training. (Fortunately because I think this is the point, ha, but) I feel so much more prepared to do lots of different things after taking all of my college classes. I feel more comfortable in different job scenarios, I understand more about the world, etc.<br /><br />I don't know if I ever imagined I would feel skilled and competent in specific situations.<br /><br />This has made me reflect on the fact that, really, if we want to accomplish something, we can. We have to put in the training and practice!<br /><br />This seems like sort of a silly epiphany--every little kid show spouts the fact that if you put your mind to it, you can accomplish it. And yet I still saw people in professional positions (or, quite frankly, most grown ups) as intimidating, talented special-cases.<br /><br />Don't get me wrong, I'm still impressed by their talents and intense work they do. But now, I'm less stunned by their qualities and more impressed with the fact that they honed the skills to get to that point.<br /><br />So, to echo all those kid shows out there--if you have a dream to be/do something, do it! You can train, you can practice, you can learn. And once you get there, start working for new goals and dreams :)<br /><br />Let's call this post Rambling of a Tired Woman.<br /><br />Have a sunny day!<br /><br />:)<br /><br /><br /><br /><br />Haleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10050881087895378237noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3670061537947585050.post-88144947907926926152013-02-22T19:33:00.001-07:002013-02-22T19:33:45.009-07:00Rise and Shine<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowFullScreen='true' webkitallowfullscreen='true' mozallowfullscreen='true' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/SuPLxQD4akQ?feature=player_embedded' FRAMEBORDER='0' /></div><br />Love this. Not just for running. For life.<br /><br />&nbsp;:)<br /><br />Haleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10050881087895378237noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3670061537947585050.post-88870813628973346802013-02-19T23:50:00.001-07:002013-02-19T23:50:26.293-07:00Touched by an AngelThis is one of the first of my favorite poems<br /><span style="font-size: x-small;">I guess some people could say parts are cheesy...but writing is a vulnerable thing. So I'll take it :)</span><br /><br /><i>Touched by an Angel</i>--Maya Angelou<br /><br />We, unaccustomed to courage,<br />exiles from delight<br />live coiled in shells of loneliness<br />until love leaves its high holy temple<br />and comes into our sight<br />to liberate us into life.<br />Love arrives<br />and in its train comes ecstasies<br />old memories of pleasure<br />ancient histories of pain.<br />Yet if we are bold,<br />love strikes away the chains of fear<br />from our souls.<br />We are weaned from our timidity<br />In the flush of love's light.<br />We dare to be brave<br />And suddenly we see<br />that love costs all we are<br />and will ever be.<br />Yet it is only love<br />which sets us free.Haleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10050881087895378237noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3670061537947585050.post-12399608724673440392013-02-17T23:30:00.000-07:002013-02-18T09:02:22.761-07:00House of CardsI just read <i>A Grief Observed</i> by C.S. Lewis.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;">Tis a tiny little book, very quick read--I recommend it :)&nbsp;</div><br />(Tiny background: he wrote this book after his wife died. This is a collection of thoughts and pains he jotted down in a notebook after that.)<br /><br />I was intrigued by the book for the simple reason that human experiences--thoughts and emotions--always attract me. His journey of grief and grapple with faith are so human!<br /><br />His relationship with his wife is described so sweetly and painfully...as this kind of pain is not something I'm currently experiencing, this post is gonna focus on some astute observations Lewis had about grief in general.<br /><br /><span style="font-size: x-small;">(Hahahaha that just reminded me...sometimes my mind wanders in random directions. The other day in the middle of a run I was having an internal dialogue about the advantages of an author saying "smart" versus "intellectually astute."&nbsp;</span><br /><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: x-small;">Obviously one sounds more descriptive, but perhaps also a tad pretentious. "Smart" might be a little common, but it's more concise. Yeah...Anyhoo...)</span><br /><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span>Allow me to share, first some parts that stood out to me (good un's), and second, three metaphors that developed in the book that I quite liked.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><b>Good Un's</b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><br /></b></div>"No one ever told me that grief felt so like fear."<br /><br /><div style="text-align: right;">"...this is one of the miracles of love;&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: right;">it gives...a power of seeing through its own&nbsp;enchantments&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: right;">and yet not being disenchanted."</div><br />"I never believed before--I thought it immensely improbable--that the faithfulest soul could leap straight into perfection and peace the moment death has rattled in the throat...I know there are not only tears to be dried but stains to be scoured. The sword will be made even brighter. <b>But oh God, tenderly, tenderly.</b>"<br /><br /><br /><div style="text-align: right;">"We don't really want grief, in its first agonies, to be prolonged: nobody could.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: right;">But we want something else of which grief is a frequent symptom."</div><br />"...in grief nothing 'stays put.' One keeps on emerging from a phase, but it always recurs. Round and round. Everything repeats. Am I going in circles, or dare I hope I am on a spiral? But if a spiral, am I going up or down it?"<br /><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><b>Closed Door</b></div><br />"Meanwhile, where is God? This is one of the most disquieting symptoms. When you are happy, so happy that you have no sense of needing Him, so happy that you are tempted to feel His claims upon you as an interruption, if you remember yourself and turn to Him with gratitude or praise, you will be--or so it feels--welcomed with open arms. <b>But go to Him when your need is&nbsp;desperate&nbsp; when other help is vain, and what do you find? A door slammed in your face, and a sound of bolting and double bolting on the inside.</b> After that, silence. You may as well turn away. The longer you wait, the more&nbsp;emphatic&nbsp;the silence will become. There are no lights in the windows. It might be an empty house. Was it ever inhabited? <b>It seemed so once</b>. And that seeming was as strong as this. What can this mean? Why is He so present a commander in our time of prosperity and so very absent a help in time of trouble?"<br /><br />"I have gradually been coming to feel that the door is no longer shut and bolted. Was it my own frantic need that slammed it in my face? The time when there is nothing at all in your soul except a cry for help may be just the time when God can't give it...Perhaps your own reiterated cries deafen you to the voice you hoped to hear. On the other hand, 'Knock and it shall be opened.' But does knocking mean hammering and kicking the door like a maniac? After all, <b>you must have a capacity to receive,</b> or even omnipotence can't give. Perhaps your own passion temporarily destroys the capacity."<br /><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">(This reminds me of '<a href="http://www.lds.org/general-conference/2012/10/where-is-the-pavilion?lang=eng&amp;query=pavilion+(name%3a%22Henry+B.+Eyring%22)">Where is the Pavilion</a>' by Henry B Eyring)</span></div><br />"Turned to God, my mind no longer meets that locked door...When I lay these questions to God I get no answer. <b>But a rather special sort of 'No answer.'</b> It is not the locked door. It is more like a silent, certainly not uncompassionate gaze. As though He shook His head no in refusal but in waiving the question. Like, 'Peace, child; you don't understand.'"<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><b>Rope</b></div><br />"You never know how much you really believe anything until its truth or falsehood becomes a matter of life and death to you. It is easy to say you believe a rope to be strong and sound as long as you are merely using it to cord a box. <b>But suppose you had to hang by that rope over a precipice.</b> Wouldn't you then first discover how much you really trusted it?...Only a real risk tests the reality of a belief."<br /><br />"I thought I trusted the rope until it mattered to me whether it would bear me. Now it matters, and I find I didn't."<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><b>House of Cards</b></div><br />"We were even promised sufferings. They were part of the programme. We were even told, 'Blessed are they that mourn,' and I accepted it. <b>I've got nothing that I hadn't bargained for. </b>Of course it is different when the thing happens to oneself, not to others, and in reality, not in imagination. Yes; but should it, for a sane man, make quite such a difference as this? No. And it wouldn't for a man whose faith had been real faith and whose concern for other people's sorrows had been real concern. The case is too plain. <b>If my house has collapsed at one blow, that is because it was a house of cards.</b> The faith which 'took these things into account' was not faith but imagination. The taking them into account was not real sympathy. If I had really cared, as I thought I did, about he sorrows of the world, I should not have been so overwhelmed when my own sorrow came."<br /><br />"And I surely must admit...that, if my house was a house of cards, <b>the sooner it was knocked down the better. And only suffering could do it.</b>...Is this last note a sign that I'm incurable, that when reality smashes my dream to bits, I mope and snarl while the first shock lasts, and then patiently, idiotically, start putting it together again? And so always? However often the house of cards falls, shall I set about rebuilding it? Is that what I'm doing now?<br />Indeed it's likely enough that what I shall call, if it happens, a 'restoration of faith' will turn out to be only one more house of cards. And<b> I shan't know whether it is or not until the next blow comes</b>--when, say, fatal disease is diagnosed in my body too, or war breaks out, or I have ruined myself by some ghastly mistake in my work. But there are two questions here. In which sense may it be a house of cards? <b>Because the thing I am&nbsp;believing&nbsp;are only a dream, or because I only dream that I believe them?</b>"<br /><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">(I had to read that last line twice ha)</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;">"I begin to see....Whether there was anything but imagination in the faith, or anything but egoism in the love, God knows. I don't. There may have been a little more...but neither was the thing I thought it was. A good deal of card-castle about both."</div><br /><span style="font-size: large;">"God has not been trying an experiment on my faith or love in order to find out their quality. He knew it already. It was I who didn't. In this trial He makes us occupy the dock, the witness box, and the bench all at once. He always knew that my temple was a house of cards. His only way of making me realize the fact was to knock it down."</span><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><b>Some Final Thoughts....</b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><br /></b></div><br />"Talk to me about the truth of religion and I'll listen gladly. Talk to me about the duty of religion and I'll listen submissively. But don't come talking to me about the consolations of religion or I shall suspect that you don't understand."<br /><br />"I thought I could describe a&nbsp;<i>state</i>; make a map of sorrow. Sorrow, however, turns out to be not a state but a process. It needs not a map but a history..."<br /><br />I think this last thought is why the "consolation of religion" is difficult to let inside.<br />Sometimes we just need to shake ourselves off and be happy, but for real sorrow, it is something that we have to work through. We have to experience it and eventually conquer it.<br /><br />But there is hope! :) All things will work together for the good of those that believe.<br />We just have to make it to that point.<br /><br />Reading this book both made me appreciate the sorrow of others more, and made me want to fortify my faith.<br />I understand closed doors more than I used to, I trust the rope more than I have, and my house of cards has been knocked down hard enough that I built it stronger this time.<br /><br />Just keep swimming<br /><br />:)<br /><br /><br /><br />Haleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10050881087895378237noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3670061537947585050.post-67959219888863374282013-02-10T03:47:00.003-07:002013-02-10T03:47:38.662-07:00WordsCan't sleep tonight. I'm in the mood for poetry. Sometimes I'll just google and browse around til I find another poem or two I love ha.<br /><br />It is often just as intriguing to find poems that I don't love--trying to imagine or decipher just what the author was thinking when they penned/typed the words.<br /><br />Interesting how sometimes we give more credence to dead people than living people. (Truth in The Band Perry's song: "Funny when you're dead how people start listening.")<br /><br />Really though..when there is a particularly hidden metaphor or confusing wording, if the person is a classic poet, or old, I tend to think it is me who has just not quite breached the proper level of understanding.<br />Others can sound like they are just trying too hard to be deep. Even then I guess I find it intriguing to puzzle &nbsp;toward their message.<br /><br />Tributes to or commentaries on normal things.<br />On random things. On important things.<br />On love and happiness and loss and heartbreak.<br /><br />Tonight (I guess it is morning now) I've mostly been randomly browsing the poems of Pablo Neruda.<br />Not necessarily cuz he's the best, or a favorite. Just cuz.<br /><br />Pablo is from Chile. So his poems were translated to English.<br />Translations.<br />Crazy. Trying to recreate the same meaning, the same pretty words, the same feeling in a whole new language. Think of whole books that are translated!<br />Some gets lost, some gets added in the process I'm sure. Comparing different translations of Pablo's poems made me want to read the scriptures in a different language ha. Hopefully all arriving at the same meaning, different words strike you in different ways.<br /><br />Here are some words of his I liked:<br /><br />(Ode to the Book)<br /><div style="text-align: center;">"When I close a book</div><br /><div style="text-align: center;">I open life...</div><div style="text-align: center;">I won't go clothed in volumes...</div><div style="text-align: center;">they devour</div><div style="text-align: center;">exciting happenings...</div><div style="text-align: center;">send books back to their shelves,</div><div style="text-align: center;">I'm going down into the streets.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">I learned about life</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">from life itself,</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>love I learned in a single kiss</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>and could teach no one anything</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>except that I have lived</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>with something in common among men,</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>when fighting with them,</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><b>when saying all their say in my song</b>."</i></div><br />(Some Beasts)<br /><div style="text-align: center;">"...From a <span style="font-size: large;">rainbowing</span> battlement..."</div><br /><br />(Poetry)<br /><div style="text-align: center;">"And it was at that age...Poetry arrived</div><div style="text-align: center;">in search of me.................</div><div style="text-align: center;">And I, infinitesimal being,</div><div style="text-align: center;">drunk with the great starry&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: center;">void,</div><div style="text-align: center;">likeness, image of&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: center;">mystery,</div><div style="text-align: center;">felt myself a pure part</div><div style="text-align: center;">of the abyss,</div><div style="text-align: center;">I wheeled with the stars,</div><div style="text-align: center;">my heart broke loose on the wind."</div><br />(Sonnet IX)<br /><div style="text-align: center;">"In the wave-strike over unquiet stones...</div><div style="text-align: center;">You and I, my love, ratify the silence..."</div><br />(Your Laughter)<br /><div style="text-align: center;">"...do not take from me your laughter...</div><div style="text-align: center;">My struggle is harsh and I come back</div><div style="text-align: center;">with eyes tired</div><div style="text-align: center;">at times from having seen</div><div style="text-align: center;">the unchanging earth,</div><div style="text-align: center;">but when your laughter enters</div><div style="text-align: center;">it rises to the sky seeking me</div><div style="text-align: center;">and it opens for me all&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: center;">the doors of life...</div><div style="text-align: center;">Laugh at the night,</div><div style="text-align: center;">at the day, at the moon,</div><div style="text-align: center;">laugh at the twisted</div><div style="text-align: center;">streets of the island,</div><div style="text-align: center;">laugh at this clumsy</div><div style="text-align: center;">boy who loves you...</div><div style="text-align: center;">never [deny] your laughter..."</div><br /><br />(The House of Odes)<br /><div style="text-align: center;">"...<span style="font-size: large;">I know who I am</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">and where my song is going</span>..."</div><div><br /></div><br />That'll do for tonight ;)<br /><br />:)<br /><br />Haleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10050881087895378237noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3670061537947585050.post-54062078836703584402013-02-07T17:32:00.000-07:002013-02-11T09:51:58.109-07:00Change<br />On my mind right now....how much we humans change. Further down I have three poems posted, all by Pablo Neruda. One is about the pain of a lost love, one about feeling love, and one that could go either way.<br /><br />We can feel all sorts of things: powerful feelings, subtle&nbsp;unnameable&nbsp;feelings, troublesome or soothing feelings.<br /><br />I guess I'm writing to the same tune as I recently did...<br /><div style="text-align: center;">We change.</div><div style="text-align: left;">That doesn't make what we experience less valid or real. But it is true.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: left;">We can be knocked from our comfortable happiness; we can also heal after hurt.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">If I could write a letter to my middle school self, I would say that feeling new or different things doesn't make the old feelings less legitimate or important.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">I'm not just talking about feelings. Also thoughts and relationships and a million things.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Ha!!!! (Story time: when I lived in California I was a Brownie Scout. And a Daisy Scout. I had a blast, and you can bet I rocked selling Girl Scout cookies ;))</div><div style="text-align: left;">Anyway, there was a song we sang I just remembered...</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">"Make new friends. But keep the old, some are silver and the others gold."</div><div style="text-align: left;">(You sing it in a round. Lots of fun ha.)</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Sure we want to be able to move on to new things in life; we can take parts of the old with us and that will always be important!</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Kinda different tangent, but this kinda reminds me of another poem I read last night (also by Pablo). So I guess I'm posting four of his poems ha :)</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>(We Are Many)</b></div><div style="text-align: left;">Of the many men who I am, whom we are,&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: left;">I cannot settle on a single one.</div><div style="text-align: left;">They are lost to me under the cover of clothing</div><div style="text-align: left;">They have departed for another city.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">When everything seems to be set</div><div style="text-align: left;">to show me off as a man of intelligence,</div><div style="text-align: left;">the fool I keep concealed on my person</div><div style="text-align: left;">takes over my talk and occupies my mouth.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">On other occasions, I am dozing in the midst</div><div style="text-align: left;">of people of some distinction,</div><div style="text-align: left;">and when I summon my courageous self,</div><div style="text-align: left;">a coward completely unknown to me</div><div style="text-align: left;">swaddles my poor skeleton</div><div style="text-align: left;">in a thousand tiny reservations...</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">All the books I read</div><div style="text-align: left;">lionize dazzling hero figures,</div><div style="text-align: left;">brimming with self-assurance.</div><div style="text-align: left;">I die with envy of them;</div><div style="text-align: left;">and, in films where bullets fly on the wind,</div><div style="text-align: left;">I am left in envy of the cowboys,</div><div style="text-align: left;">left admiring even the horses.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">But when I call upon my DASHING BEING,</div><div style="text-align: left;">out comes the same OLD LAZY SELF,</div><div style="text-align: left;">and so I never know just WHO I AM,</div><div style="text-align: left;">nor how many I am, nor WHO WE WILL BE BEING.</div><div style="text-align: left;">I would like to be able to touch a bell&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: left;">and call up my real self, the truly me,</div><div style="text-align: left;">because if I really need my proper self,</div><div style="text-align: left;">I must not allow myself to disappear.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">While I am writing, I am far away;</div><div style="text-align: left;">and when I come back, I have already left.</div><div style="text-align: left;">I should like to see if the same thing happens</div><div style="text-align: left;">to other people as it does to me,</div><div style="text-align: left;">to see if as many people are as I am,</div><div style="text-align: left;">and if they seem the same way to themselves.</div><div style="text-align: left;">When this problem has been thoroughly explored,</div><div style="text-align: left;">I am going to school myself so well in things</div><div style="text-align: left;">that, when I try to explain my problems,</div><div style="text-align: left;">I shall speak, not of self, but of geography.</div><br /><b>(Tonight I Can Write)</b><br />"Tonight I can write the saddest lines.<br />Write, for example, 'The night is starry<br /><br />and the stars are blue and shiver in the distance.'<br />The night revolves in the sky and sings.<br /><br />Tonight I can write the saddest lines.<br />I loved her, and sometimes she loved me too.<br /><br />Through nights like this one I held her in my arms.<br />I kissed her again and again under the endless sky.<br /><br />She loved me, sometimes I loved her too.<br />How could one not have loved her great still eyes.<br /><br />Tonight I can write the saddest lines.<br />To think that I do not have her. To feel that I have lost her.<br /><br />To hear the immense night, still more immense without her.<br />And the verse falls to the soul like dew to the pasture.<br /><br />What does it matter that my love could not keep her.<br />The night is starry and she is not with me.<br /><br />This is all. In the distance someone is singing. In the distance.<br />My soul is not satisfied that it has lost her.<br /><br />My sight tries to find her as though to bring her closer.<br />My heart looks for her, and she is not with me.<br /><br />The same night whitening the same trees.<br />We, of that time, are no longer, the same.<br /><br />I no longer love her, that's certain, but how I loved her.<br />My voice tried to find the wind to touch her hearing.<br /><br />Another's. She will be another's. As she was before my kisses.<br />Her voice, her bright body. Her infinite eyes.<br /><br />I no longer lover her, that's certain, but maybe I love her.<br />Love is short, forgetting is so long.<br /><br />Because through nights like this one I held her in my arms<br />My soul is not satisfied that it has lost her.<br /><br />Though this be the last pain that she makes me suffer<br />And these the last verses that I write for her."<br /><br /><b>(If You Forget Me)</b><br />I want you to know<br />one thing.<br /><br />You know how this is:<br />if I look<br />at the crystal moon, at the red branch<br />of the slow autumn at my window,<br />if I touch<br />near the fire<br />the impalpable ash<br />or the wrinkled body of the log,<br />everything carries me to you,<br />as if everything that exists,<br />aromas, light, metals,<br />were little boats<br />that sail<br />toward those isles of yours that wait for me.<br /><br />Well, now,<br />if little by little you stop loving me<br />I shall stop loving you little by little.<br /><br />If suddenly<br />you forget me<br />do not look for me,<br />for I shall already have fogotten you.<br /><br />If you you think it long and mad,<br />the wind of banners<br />that passes through my life,<br />and you decide<br />to leave me at the shore<br />of the hearts where I have roots,<br />remember<br />that on that day,<br />at that hour,<br />I shall lift my arms<br />and my roots will set off<br />to seek another land.<br /><br />But<br />if each day,<br />each hour,<br />you feel that you are destined for me<br />with implacable sweetness,<br />if each day a flower<br />climbs up to your lips to seek me,<br />ah my love, ah my own,<br />in me all that fire is repeated,<br />in me nothing is extinguished or forgotten,<br />my love feeds on your love, beloved,<br />and as long as you will live it will be in your arms<br />without leaving mine.<br /><br /><b>(Sonnet XVII)</b><br />"I don't love you as if you were a rose of salt, topaz,<br />or arrow of carnations that propagate fire:<br />I love you as one loves certain obscure things,<br />secretly, between the shadow and the soul.<br /><br />I love you as the plant that doesn't bloom<br />but carries the light of those flowers, hidden, within itself,<br />and thanks to your love the tight aroma that arose,<br />from the earth lives dimly in my body.<br /><br />I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where.<br />I love you directly, without complexities or pride:<br />I love you like this because I don't know any other way to love,<br />Except in this form in which I am not nor are you,<br />so close that your hand on my chest is my hand,<br />so close that your eyes close with my dreams."<br /><br />:)<br /><br />Haleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10050881087895378237noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3670061537947585050.post-74075966341035629012013-02-06T04:53:00.000-07:002013-02-06T04:53:13.836-07:00HulkThe other day I had an epiphany.<br /><br />When I get married I'll be paying to legally change my name...at which time who says I can't change more than my last name?? ;)<br /><br />Now...having been called Haley my whole life, I'm pretty attached to that ha, but I might be down to give middle names a go!<br /><br />A nurse I work with and I discussed that if my middle name started with an I, my initials would be HIK......so maybe I won't go down that road.<br /><br />However, if my middle name starts with an L, my initials would be HLK! (Hulk, get it?) :) I could live with that :)<br /><br />Or I could always go from Haley Freakin Haws to Haley Freakin Kilmer.<br /><br />Or maybe I'll just do the normal thing and change my last name.<br /><br />We'll see. Until that point, let me know if you have any cool name suggestions!<br />&nbsp;:)<br /><br />P.S. I know these are old, but I love them :)<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowFullScreen='true' webkitallowfullscreen='true' mozallowfullscreen='true' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/w5DwIcnpBCA?feature=player_embedded' FRAMEBORDER='0' /></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowFullScreen='true' webkitallowfullscreen='true' mozallowfullscreen='true' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/adLqv-gQv7w?feature=player_embedded' FRAMEBORDER='0' /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowFullScreen='true' webkitallowfullscreen='true' mozallowfullscreen='true' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/wowJsEM7Blk?feature=player_embedded' FRAMEBORDER='0' /></div><br />:)Haleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10050881087895378237noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3670061537947585050.post-37705059549906063262013-01-30T15:36:00.001-07:002013-02-01T15:57:26.397-07:00HelenHelen Keller is pretty much amazing!<br /><br />Look at some the things she has said..<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;">"Although the world is full of suffering, it is full also of the overcoming of it. My optimism, then, does not rest on the absence of evil, but on a <span style="font-size: large;">glad belief in the preponderance of good</span> and a willing effort always to cooperate with the good, <span style="font-size: large;">that it may prevail.</span>"</div><br /><div style="text-align: center;">"It is wonderful how much time good people spend fighting the devil. If they would only expend the same amount of energy loving their fellow men, <b>the devil would die in his own tracks of ennui.</b>"</div><br />&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; (I especially liked this cuz I learned the word ennui.<br />&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;Pronounced ahn-wee..sounds like a french way of saying ornery.<br />&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; It means "a feeling of utter weariness and discontent resulting<br />&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; from satiety or lack of interest; boredom; displeasure; annoyance")<br /><br /><br />"I long to accomplish a great and noble task, but it is my chief duty to accomplish small tasks as if they were great and noble."<br />&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; (...this makes me want to go to Romania.........)<br /><br /><br />"I seldom think about my limitations, and they never make me sad. Perhaps there is just a touch of yearning at times; but it is vague, like a breeze among flowers."<br /><br />"The world is moved along, not only by the mighty shoves of its heroes, but also by the aggregate of tiny pushes of each honest worker."<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">"All the world if full of suffering.&nbsp;</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">It is also full of overcoming."</span></div><br />:)<br /><br />Haleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10050881087895378237noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3670061537947585050.post-6725425140366617852013-01-28T17:14:00.002-07:002013-01-28T17:14:56.878-07:00Path<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">"The future is not some place we are going to, but one we are creating. The paths are not to be found, but made, and the activity of making them&nbsp;</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">changes both the maker and the destination</span><span style="font-size: large;">."</span>&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">~John Schaar</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">You've probably heard quotes like this before. Do you ever feel like life's course is inevitable? I think there are things we can't change. Especially in the past--face forward. The future is as bright as your faith.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">What about when your faith doesn't feel bright enough to get you to where you want to be? You can get there :) Pray :) It works.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">:)</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowFullScreen='true' webkitallowfullscreen='true' mozallowfullscreen='true' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/l-gQLqv9f4o?feature=player_embedded' FRAMEBORDER='0' /></div><br />ha! :)</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div>Haleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10050881087895378237noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3670061537947585050.post-79285802315305018372013-01-22T11:55:00.001-07:002013-01-22T11:55:09.111-07:00Living With QuestionsToday on campus there was a forum by a man named Dr. Michael Wesch--twas super good!!!<br /><br />I'll post it when that is available.<br /><br />He had a lot of really good things to say--one of my favorite takeaways is that we should live with questions. In other words, learning is usually facilitated when you really want to understand something better.<br /><br />Better learning=better actions.<br /><br />When you live with questions you want to experience the world;<br /><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">&nbsp;living itself feels like a celebration.&nbsp;</span></div><br />Keep wonder in your world!<br /><br />We are interested in different things, but our wonder and desire to learn helps us connect to each other and see the value in everything and everyone.<br /><br />Life is an action, something you can get better at.<br /><br />:)<br /><br />I'm reminded of Dr. Palmer--my Social Recreation teacher last semester. He was great at reminding us that as we grow up, we don't have to be boring. We can enjoy life just as much--or more than kids! Keep having fun! Keep your sense of wonder! :)<br /><br />:)<br /><br />Haleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10050881087895378237noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3670061537947585050.post-25992268428280022212013-01-21T16:32:00.000-07:002013-01-22T16:33:08.672-07:00BirthdaysI just have to get this off my chest:<br /><br />I am awful at remembering birthdays. This leads me to waaaay over-think facebook haha :)<br /><br />Let me show you why:<br /><br />&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;Good ol' FB is fantastic because I can see when people's birthdays are!<br />&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; The problem?<br />&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;Since I am not on FB everyday I get paranoid that I missed somebody's birthday<br /><br /><div style="text-align: right;">(You can tell how depressing and serious of a problem this post is going to address)</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">I used to have the philosophy that if I knew someone well enough to be FB friends, then I was good enough friends to at least leave a generic "Happy birthday!" on their wall.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: left;">&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; Now I tend to work the opposite way ha...I rarely tell anybody happy birthday.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Over-thinking: what if I tell some distant friend happy birthday then forget to wish somebody significant to me happy birthday??</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: right;">(Of course if they are truly significant, I will probably offer more than a generic "happy birthday." )</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">But what about those in-between people who you want to keep up with, but don't know well enough to have their phone number?</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Sigh.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">There you go. A glimpse into my oh-so-conflicted self ;) And an apology, to everybody I ought to have wished happy birthday. Happy birthday.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Hopefully when your birthday comes around I will release my mind from over-analyzing such a simple thing and wish you a more personal happy birthday :)</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">:)</div>Haleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10050881087895378237noreply@blogger.com0